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Some general grousing, because I feel like it...
Saturday, November 20th, 2004 12:28 pmFirst of all, a word on a subject that's been getting under my skin lately, contractions.
I find it hard to believe that anyone who can read English can find it difficult to grasp the concept behind them. And yet I find that even people whose command of the language is pretty damned good still make this mistake. It drives me batty, frankly. So, a quick lesson in when and when not to use that apostrophe.
A contraction (isn't, aren't, didn't, weren't, etc.) is exactly that - two word contracted into one. "Isn't" is a short form of "is not", "they're" is a short form of "they are", "it's" is a short form of "it is". And so on.
So the way to know if you should use "its" or "it's" is to ask yourself "Am I trying to say 'it is' or not?" Same for "they're" and "their" - are you saying "they are" or are you assigning a possessive? This goes for any contraction. Simply expand the word into its component parts and see if it fits. (See how I used "its" there? "It's" would have been wrong, because I'm not trying to say "It is".) Going to use "they're"? Make it "they are" and see if that's the meaning you want in your sentence.
It's (It is) really very simple. Words have their (possessive) place, and if they're (they are) not properly bestowed, the sentence will lose its (possessive) meaning.
The second thing I want to gripe about is ( WIP heartbreak )
I find it hard to believe that anyone who can read English can find it difficult to grasp the concept behind them. And yet I find that even people whose command of the language is pretty damned good still make this mistake. It drives me batty, frankly. So, a quick lesson in when and when not to use that apostrophe.
A contraction (isn't, aren't, didn't, weren't, etc.) is exactly that - two word contracted into one. "Isn't" is a short form of "is not", "they're" is a short form of "they are", "it's" is a short form of "it is". And so on.
So the way to know if you should use "its" or "it's" is to ask yourself "Am I trying to say 'it is' or not?" Same for "they're" and "their" - are you saying "they are" or are you assigning a possessive? This goes for any contraction. Simply expand the word into its component parts and see if it fits. (See how I used "its" there? "It's" would have been wrong, because I'm not trying to say "It is".) Going to use "they're"? Make it "they are" and see if that's the meaning you want in your sentence.
It's (It is) really very simple. Words have their (possessive) place, and if they're (they are) not properly bestowed, the sentence will lose its (possessive) meaning.
The second thing I want to gripe about is ( WIP heartbreak )
